Help+Manual News

Posts Tagged Webhelp

We recently worked with Scooter Software to better integrate their online help into their website.

Scooter makes BeyondCompare, the best multi-file comparison tool on the market. We use BeyondCompare ourselves to synchronize and merge source code changes and Scooter uses Help+Manual for producing their own documentation.

A WebHelp version of BeyondCompare’s documentation is also available online. The old version didn’t match their beautiful Steampunk theme, which we really love. That was a pity, because Help+Manual is extremely powerful when it comes to embedding help content into your website.

This has changed in their gorgeous new version, however: Starting with a draft of a new WebHelp skin that matches the design of their web pages, the web designers at Scooter then fine-tuned the skin and fully integrated it in the host pages. The result is a beautiful example of what is possible with Help+Manual with just a little extra tweaking:

$ symbols at the beginning of topic IDs are permitted again, except for TFS, because TFS cannot handle files starting with a $ symbol

DOCX export: variables were not always replaced when publishing the document

RTF import: problem with Unicode bullets fixed

Variables in the publish tasks were not used in command line mode, if the variable replaced a pre-defined variable

Comments when shown as icon could not be made fullsize again in the dialog.

Improved Find & Replace function

Furthermore, we have updated the responsive skins that are shipped as standard skins with Help+Manual to improve compatibility with older mobile browsers.

This is, however, not the last update on the new skins. After the release of Help+Manual 7, we got a lot of feedback on the new responsive Webhelp and we are still working on new skins, to integrate your wishes and requirements. Stay tuned for updated and new skins with more configuration options in the next couple of weeks. Those upcoming minor updates, as well as this one, are of course free for registered v7 users.

Quite a few Help & Manual users have asked about options for integrating WordPress with Help & Manual output. Marc Beneteau of WordPress Academy has now responded to these requests with a third-party WordPress plugin that integrates WebHelp using the Premium Pack skins with WordPress membership sites.

The plugin is primarily designed for authors and vendors who need to provide paid access to information online. You can maintain your content with Help & Manual and use the features of WordPress membership sites for providing paid access. You can see it in action in Marc’s own implementation on his WordPress Academy site here:

Wordpress integration for Webhelp - click on the image to see it live

The plugin does not require any changes to the Help & Manual skins, projects or output. You just put your HM WebHelp content online, and the plugin pulls it into your WordPress site.